Menu

Blog

Page 5874

Feb 7, 2021

USTP Virtual Enlightenment Salon: Debate on Artificial General Intelligence and Existential Risk

Posted by in categories: existential risks, geopolitics, robotics/AI, transhumanism

On Sunday, February 72021, at 1 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time, the U.S. Transhumanist Party will host a Debate on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Existe…Debate on Artificial General Intelligence and Existential Risk: David J. Kelley and Connor Leahy.


Interested.

Feb 7, 2021

Breakthrough drug might cure COVID-19 in just five days

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, innovation

It’s too early to call it a miracle cure, but if the conclusions from a recent Phase 1 trial for a new drug called EXO-C24 are backed up in subsequent trials, we might have the first true breakthrough therapy for COVID-19. That’s in addition to coronavirus vaccines, of course, which will help prevent severe COVID-19 cases and deaths, and even reduce the spread of the illness. But while vaccines can give the immune system a heads-up to the threat it might have to deal with — the real virus — they have a few limitations. First of all, they don’t work on infected people. Secondly, vaccine supply is still limited and vaccinations aren’t available to anybody who might want one. Then there’s the threat of coronavirus mutations that might reduce vaccines’ effect on the virus and extend the pandemic.

Feb 7, 2021

Elon Musk Tells Air Force General That Fighter Jets Are Over

Posted by in categories: drones, Elon Musk, military

Is this the end of manned fighter planes? 🙂


“The F-35” would have no chance” against a “drone fighter plane that’s remote controlled by a human.”

Feb 7, 2021

Dr Vipul Goyal — NTT Research — Quantum Encryption, Privacy Preservation, And Blockchains

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, computing, encryption, privacy, quantum physics, security

Quantum Encryption, Privacy Preservation, And Blockchains — Dr. Vipul Goyal, NTT Ltd. Cryptography & Information Security Labs


Dr Vipul Goyal is a senior scientist at NTT Research (a division of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, a telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.) and an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where he is part of the Crypto group, the theory group, a core faculty at CyLab (CMU security and privacy institute) and the faculty advisor of CMU Blockchain Group.

Continue reading “Dr Vipul Goyal — NTT Research — Quantum Encryption, Privacy Preservation, And Blockchains” »

Feb 7, 2021

Postage stamp to honor female physicist who many say should have won the Nobel Prize

Posted by in category: space

Chien-Shiung Wu proved the universe knows its right hand from its left.

Feb 7, 2021

The real value of the nuclear ban treaty

Posted by in categories: geopolitics, military, treaties

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons represents a refusal to live forever under this nuclear shadow. It reflects a belief that the status quo represents a grave inequity, in which nuclear costs are imposed upon all, while the benefits of nuclear arms accrue to the few states privileged to possess them.

Feb 6, 2021

A Supermassive Black Hole Yeeted This Star at 3.7 Million MPH

Posted by in category: cosmology

It is a visitor from a strange land.

Feb 6, 2021

Experimental vaccine blunts the deadliest of synthetic opioids

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

O,.o.


As the opioid epidemic raged on with an even greater force during COVID-19, the Scripps Research laboratory of chemist Kim Janda, Ph.D., has been working on new therapeutic interventions that may be able to prevent the bulk of deaths from opioid overdose.

Feb 6, 2021

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe sent back first image of Mars

Posted by in category: space

It has travelled about 465 million kilometers, reaching more than 184 million kilometers from earth and 1.1 million kilometers from Mars as of 8 pm Friday.

Feb 6, 2021

Smart Cameras That Stop Wind Turbines When Birds Approach Massively Reduce Eagle Deaths

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Renewable energy is now the cheapest energy on the planet. Countries all over the globe are rapidly converting from destructive and limited fossil fuels to wind turbines, solar power and even more creative options, including the UK which is now powered more by renewables than other sources.

Despite being one of the best sources of renewable energy, wind turbines have received significant pushback from opposition that claims they kill native bird populations. It is a valid criticism – research has shown collisions with turbine blades do kill birds, albeit at a fraction of the rate fossil-fueled power plants do.

In an attempt to minimize the ecological impact of wind turbines, a new smart camera system developed by IdentiFlight detects the presence of birds, identifies if they are endangered, and shuts down the spinning blades before impact. According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, deploying a curtailment system near a wind turbine site led to a decrease in Eagle fatalities of 82 percent, suggesting the camera systems could have a drastic effect on saving protected bird species.